Why buying a candle makes perfect scents this Christmas

A festive partnership is using the power of scented candles to raise money for charity 

An Adelaide charity is teaming up with a 17-year-old social entrepreneur to encourage Australians to embrace the gift of giving back this Christmas and support sustainable development projects across the globe.    

World Youth International announced this week it is working with social enterprise Kenshi Candles, which sells hand-poured scented candles made by Melbourne’s Chin refugee community, which has fled civil war in Myanmar. 

As part of this festive partnership, $10 from every scented candle sold goes towards World Youth International’s work improving access to education and healthcare to vulnerable communities in Kenya and Nepal.

Kenshi Candles was founded by Liam Foldi when he was just 14 years old, with the teenager having a vision to raise thousands of dollars for charity without needing to ask people for donations.

Terry Hoey, the general manager at World Youth International, said the charity was thrilled to partner with Kenshi Candles.

“We hope that by promoting our vision to educate, empower and inspire positive change within the global community through our partnership campaign with Kenshi [this] will encourage people to further understand our charity’s impact,” Hoey said.

“And [understand] why it’s so important to reconsider their gift options this Christmas.”

Hoey said this campaign will also involve promoting the Kenshi story, and the inspirational and courageous work the social enterprise is undertaking. 

“[Foldi is] not only providing fundraising opportunities for charities, but [he is] also creating much needed employment opportunities for a refugee community in his very own city,” he said. 

“This is the type of [philanthropy] we applaud, and we need to do what we can to support these innovative initiatives.” 

You can see the candles from the campaign here.